Obama Touts Medicare Study Created by his Former Health Care Advisor

This is simply brazen politics and Obama should not be allowed to get away with it.

The president is running around Florida, crowing about a new study that shows seniors that their Medicare costs would rise precipitously under Mitt Romney’s Medicare plan.

The only problem for the president is that the study was created by his former top health care advisor during his first campaign in 2008. The idea that this study is anything but partisan crap is nonsense.

Campaigning for a second day in a state where older voters and workers approaching retirement hold sway, Obama was expected to highlight a study by a Democratic leaning group that concluded that on average a man or woman retiring at age 65 in 2023 would have to pay $59,500 more for health care over the length of their retirement under Mitt Romney’s plan.

The numbers are even higher for younger people who retire later, the study found. A person who qualifies for Medicare in 2030 — today’s 48-year-old — would see an increase of $124,600 in Medicare costs over their retirement period.

While Romney’s changes to Medicare would affect future retirees, the study also said that the Republican presidential nominee’s plan to get rid of Obama’s health care law could raise health care costs in retirement by $11,000 for the average person who is 65 today by reinstating limits on prescription drug coverage.

The study was conducted by David Cutler, a Harvard professor and health policy expert who served in the Clinton administration and was Obama’s top health care adviser during the 2008 presidential campaign. Cutler conducted the study for the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Sheesh! The most politically partisan think tank in Washington with several former fellows occupying positions in the Obama administration creates a study that bashes Mitt Romney’s Medicare reform ideas? Who woulda thunk it.

How realistic and accurate can we expect a study coming from CAP to be? Here’s their reaction to the jobs numbers on Friday, from the Daily Caller:

Center for American Progress Action Fund senior economist Heather Boushey, for instance, said in a statement that “August marked the 30th straight month of private-sector job gains. … With the fiscal cliff looming at the end of the year and Europe teetering on recession, employers need to see Republican leaders in Congress step up and act to boost employment, rather than acting as they have been by paring back spending before the economy has fully recovered.”

Such mendacity is breathtaking.

It appears that President Obama can only advocate for his re-election by citing questionable statistics, exaggerating his opponent’s positions, lying about their intent, and smearing them personally while obscuring his own sorry record.

What a piece of work.

Rick Moran is PJ Media's Chicago editor and Blog editor at The American Thinker. His own blog is Right Wing Nut House.

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1.
Raymond in DC

Study: “A person who qualifies for Medicare in 2030 — today’s 48-year-old — would see an increase of $124,600 in Medicare costs over their retirement period.”

Let’s flip that around. Even assuming it’s true that under Obama’s plan, one who qualifies for Medicare in 2030 will have an additional $124,600 of his costs covered, WHERE DOES THAT MONEY COME FROM? Oh right, borrowing from and taxing others. When you get down to it, the health care argument comes down to cost shifting – how much and from whom.

“Never mind about truth. Let’s hope one of the super PACs or Romney’s own campaign staff take up this one. What a load of crap.”

Don’t count on it. The GOP establishment doesn’t know how to fight. Obama has been standing up on stage claiming he’s “cut middle class taxes every year he’s been in office by an average of $3600″, a lie so blatant and preposterous it boggles the mind, yet they have said nothing. Obama is pretending that by signing off on extension to the Bush tax rates, he’s cutting taxes. They can’t even manage to point this flagrant charlatanism out.